The present disclosure relates generally to the field of airborne radar systems. The present disclosure more specifically relates to the field of terrain and obstacle detection using airborne radar systems such as weather radar systems.
Conventional weather radar systems conduct one or two horizontal radar sweeps during a given sweep “set” to detect weather and terrain or other ground obstacles. The horizontal radar scans are usually horizontally symmetrical on-center of the aircraft and are typically conducted at a single tilt (i.e., vertical) angle. In some systems, a first horizontal scan will be conducted at a first tilt angle and a second horizontal scan will be conducted at a second tilt angle. The applicants have discovered that such conventional systems are limited in their vertical resolution.